Page 56 of Roads Behind Us
Hm. He had a point, and I kind of liked it. Endless days and nights spent with Bea, building shit when the sun was up and breaking each other down under the glow from the moon shining in my bedroom window every night?
I could get used to that.
“You stayin’ here again tonight?” I asked my best friend.
“Nope. Got a date with my girl.”
“You sure? I was thinkin’ I might cook out.”
“Am I sure if I wanna spend the night with the woman I love? Damn sure. You’re really gonna cook?”
I scoffed. “Yeah. I cook every night. What’s the big deal?”
“You used to. Now, how you gonna juggle steaks and potatoes with those crutches?”
“Oh.” I looked down at the annoying wooden sticks. “Good point. I’ll need help.”
He winked. “And I know just the contractor for the job. Bet she’ll be hungry after a hard day’s work.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, shut up.” But I couldn’t hide my smile.
Chapter Nineteen
Bea
After everyone went home for the day, I spent an hour inspecting the work and wandering the area.
I never saw the mysterious guy, but I still had a high sun and daylight left, and I wanted to check out the lake Brand had told me about. He’d described whole summers spent on Lee Lake, having picnics, barbeques, and rock-skipping competitions. He said his dad used to dig a hole in the earth and pack hot coals into it, and then his mom would put veggies and meat into a Dutch oven and bury it to cook.
Growing up an only child was lonely sometimes, so I could imagine how fun that must’ve been, the adventures Bax and Brand and their siblings must’ve had when they were young.
I found the little trail that Brand had marked on a map for me and followed it to the lake, and boy, what a view. The dark, green-blue water glistened in the afternoon sun, reflecting the mountain behind it. It looked like one of those oil paintings by the guy from the eighties, with his fabulous hair and happy little trees.
A hollowed log floated near the bank, stuck to the edges of weeds and lily pads. As I followed the trail around the lake, I kept my eye on it so I’d remember where the trailhead was, and when I looked over my shoulder to locate it, a turtle popped onto the log. Deer drank from the little creek that ran down the mountain and fed the lake, and fish swam by as I meandered, rising to the surface of the water to gulp air, making little blip noises in the still afternoon.
Invisible birds sang to me, and peace descended over my body. Taking a deep breath, I sat in the tall grasses lining the lake, patting down a spot with my butt and staring across the glassy surface of the water. I looked up at the blue sky, wondering what Mother Nature had in store for me. Would she cooperate and hold back her snow, or was she getting ready to rage? I hoped for the former, but I knew there would be no negotiating with her. Best just to focus on the work still left to do instead of worrying about all the what ifs.
Bax was never far from my mind. I saw him changing right in front of my eyes, from the closed-off widower he’d been when I got here to the bold, brave single father he was turning out to be. He certainly had more courage than me. I’d stayed in a marriage I knew was no good because I’d been too afraid to admit that I’d failed or that I deserved better. Bax hadn’t failed at anything, but he deserved better than the sadness and pain he’d barricaded himself behind.
My own dad had shown me that losing love was a recipe for the end of a life, but maybe he’d been wrong.
An hour later when I got back to my cabin, I was so utterly relaxed that I didn’t even notice the guy from this morning. He moved out of my line of sight as I approached the front door, and I caught him in the periphery, dressed exactly as Clay had described. He stood on the far side of my truck, trying, I thought, not to get too close. When we made eye contact, he took two steps further away.
“Hi.” I tried to sound friendly and casual, though the hair at the back of my neck stood on end because the primal part of me knew he shouldn’t have been there and I shouldn’t have been alone with some unknown guy, who truthfully seemed a bit sketchy.
The guy didn’t answer. He looked back and forth between me and the cabin door. Had he been about to rob me? But I realized I didn’t fear him. All I felt as I looked at his ratty clothes and his dirty hair was… sorrow.
The day he promoted me, Brand had made me sign up for a self-defense class at a local martial arts studio up in Sheridan. He’d said it was non-negotiable since I’d be alone on job sites a lot of the time, with only men. He also bought me a bulk box of pepper spray to carry with me at all times that had some kind of UV identifying dye so if I ever was attacked, the cops would know who did it. It had never come to that. The majority of the guys I worked with were respectful, and if they weren’t, they mostly kept their distance, but I was glad for the skills now.
I didn’t have my pepper spray on me. Stupidly, I’d left it lying useless beneath my seat in my truck, but I didn’t think I needed it this time, and if it came down to it, I could break his nose with one thrust of my hand to his face and flip him onto his back using one arm and his own body weight for momentum. Thank you, Hapkido.
Errantly, I wondered if pepper spray worked on bears. Did it have the same ingredients bear spray had?
But I also tried to remember that asking a stranger for a job wasn’t easy, if that was the reason he’d shown back up. “Can I help you with somethin’? Are you lookin’ for work?”
“No,” the guy said roughly.
“Oh. Okay, then what’re you doin’ here? This is private property.”
